Chinese dragon awakens
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published June 26, 2005
Part I

China is building its military forces faster than U.S. intelligence and military analysts expected, prompting fears that Beijing will attack Taiwan in the next two years, according to Pentagon officials.U.S. defense and intelligence officials say all the signs point in one troubling direction: Beijing then will be forced to go to war with the United States, which has vowed to defend Taiwan against a Chinese attack.
China's military buildup includes an array of new high-technology weapons, such as warships, submarines, missiles and a maneuverable warhead designed to defeat U.S. missile defenses. Recent intelligence reports also show that China has stepped up military exercises involving amphibious assaults, viewed as another sign that it is preparing for an attack on Taiwan.
"There's a growing consensus that at some point in the mid-to-late '90s, there was a fundamental shift in the sophistication, breadth and re-sorting of Chinese defense planning," said Richard Lawless, a senior China-policy maker in the Pentagon. "And what we're seeing now is a manifestation of that change in the number of new systems that are being deployed, the sophistication of those systems and the interoperability of the systems."
China's economy has been growing at a rate of at least 10 percent for each of the past 10 years, providing the country's military with the needed funds for modernization.
The combination of a vibrant centralized economy, growing military and increasingly fervent nationalism has transformed China into what many defense officials view as a fascist state.
"We may be seeing in China the first true fascist society on the model of Nazi Germany, where you have this incredible resource base in a commercial economy with strong nationalism, which the military was able to reach into and ramp up incredible production," a senior defense official said.
For Pentagon officials, alarm bells have been going off for the past two years as China's military began rapidly building and buying new troop- and weapon-carrying ships and submarines...

Members of Congress are concerned about whether U.S. firms
have provided expertise to China for use in its ballistic missile program
and whether a series of decisions by the Clinton Administration on
satellite exports have facilitated legal or illegal transfers of missile-related
technology to China. The New York Times reported in April 1998
that the Justice Department is conducting an ongoing criminal
investigation into whether Loral Space and Communications and
Hughes Electronics violated export control laws. The firms are
alleged to have shared their findings with China on the cause of a
Chinese rocket's explosion while launching a U.S.-origin satellite in
February 1996. In sharing their conclusions, the companies are said
to have provided expertise that China could use to improve the
accuracy and reliability of its ballistic missiles, including their guidance
systems. The news report cited a classified report in the Pentagon
that concluded in May 1997 that as a result of the transfer of
expertise to China's missile program, "United States national
security has been harmed." In addition, the press reports alleged
that President Clinton in February 1998 issued a waiver for sanctions
that undermined the investigation by allowing the issuance of licenses
for the export of assistance similar to that in question. Moreover,
the Times article alleged that political considerations may have
influenced the Administration's decision, since Loral's chairman
was the largest personal donor to the Democratic National Committee
for the 1996 election.

Reads almost like a report from pre-WW2. All the land grab points are mentioned.

In order to pull it all off they would have to make a sneak attack against the US and its allies. Multiple major strikes throughout the pacific and middle east. Ironically Russia would be drawn into it too. In the case of such a war I think limited nukes would be used as well.

Reads almost like a report from pre-WW2. All the land grab points are mentioned.

In order to pull it all off they would have to make a sneak attack against the US and its allies. Multiple major strikes throughout the pacific and middle east. Ironically Russia would be drawn into it too. In the case of such a war I think limited nukes would be used as well.

China is stepping up its overt and covert efforts to gather intelligence and technology in the United States, and the activities have boosted Beijing's plans to rapidly produce advanced-weapons systems.
"I think you see it where something that would normally take 10 years to develop takes them two or three," said David Szady, chief of FBI counterintelligence operations.
He said the Chinese are prolific collectors of secrets and military-related information.
"What we're finding is that [the spying is] much more focused in certain areas than we ever thought, such as command and control and things of that sort," Mr. Szady said.
"In the military area, the rapid development of their 'blue-water' navy -- like the Aegis weapons systems -- in no small part is probably due to some of the research and development they were able to get from the United States," he said.
The danger of Chinese technology acquisition is that if the United States were called on to fight a war with China over the Republic of China (Taiwan), U.S. forces could find themselves battling a U.S.-equipped enemy.
"I would hate for my grandson to be killed with U.S. technology" in a war over Taiwan, senior FBI counterintelligence official Tim Bereznay told a conference earlier this year....

Stealing technology and disrespect for intellectual property rights is a way of life in China. The Chinese steal everything they think valuable: e.g., software, movies, airplane parts, construction machinery, and weapons. When I lived in Shanghai, I had a Chinese friend that worked in a local bank. He told me that bank transactions with customers and other banks were conducted with stolen US software, running on stolen copies of Windows NT. In terms of weapons, accounts of Chinese thefts of American Aegis and nuclear technology have been frequently published. Chinese attempts to steal US weapons technology have been going on for a long time. Here is an article about Chinese thefts of US nuke weapons technology from six years ago: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/351667.stm.

It is not likely that the Chinese will soon (e.g., in two years as the above article suggests) deliberately choose war with America. The Chinese do not want to disrupt their economic growth; they do not want to cut off their American source of foreign exchange. In the near-term, the only way that war with America could occur would be a Chinese miscalculation that the US would not respond to an invasion of Taiwan. The need to make sure that the Chinese do not fail to believe that there will be an American response to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan will lead the US to continue to build up its military forces in Asia. For example, during the past two years, American has for the first time based nuclear attack submarines at Guam. Last month, for the first time, America based F117 stealth bombers in South Korea. A recent US-Japan strategic agreement underlines that the Japanese will come to the aid of US forces confronting a Chinese attack on Taiwan: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39361-2005Feb20.html. . In terms of attacking the Taiwanese, China should not underestimate the military strength of the island. In a conventional war with Taiwan, the Chinese would ultimately prevail but only at a terrible cost. Taiwan has possessed nuclear technology for decades. Can the Chinese be sure that the Taiwanese do not possess nukes, or the capability to rapidly build them?

Onedomino, do you know if COSCO is still leasing the Long Beach Naval Station or has that lease been revoked? (see article below) I know the Chinese tried to bring in 100,000 AK-47 rifles to arm the facility but were not permitted to. But who knows, we were so lax toward the Chinese military at that time that they could have smuggled them in anyway.
------- ------- ------ ------- ------
Sorry, I have to post the entire article. The url no longer works.

LONG BEACH DESK - The Long Beach Naval Station was tentatively placed on the Military Base Closure-List by president George Bush in 1991. President Bill Clinton, closed the naval base last in 1993. That resulted in the loss to Long Beach, California of 17,500 military and civilian jobs. The economic impact of the of loss was $52.5 million and drove the California economy into the tank. It has never recovered.

Between 1995-1996, during the heat of the Clinton-Gore Campaign fund raising activity, the Clinton administration actively intervened to make sure a Communist Chinese cargo container shipping interest got a too-good deal on a Long Beach, California, shipping terminal.

The Secretary of the Navy has formally turned the base over to the City of Long Beach. But, the Port of Long Beach has signed a letter of intent to lease the property to the China Ocean Shipping Co., a steamship line run by the Communist Chinese government.

The Navy base property is about to be leased to a Communist China-owned shipping company under an agreement that was only made possible by the intervention of the White House.

Forced by a court order, Port of Long Beach officials have now set March 12, 1997 for a new public hearing on plans to bulldoze the Naval Station and lease the property to the Comunist Chinese shipping company.

After a hearing before the court, a judge ruled last week that the deal had been rushed and proper procedures had not been in place.

Clinton was so eager to push the deal through that he met twice with Long Beach officials and once at a White House meeting in 1995 that included his then-chief of staff and the Pentagon's No. 2 official and others.

The deal finally approved by the Secretary of the Navy turns over control of the Long Beach Naval Station, with a value of at least $65 million, free of charge to the City of Long Beach. The city has agreed to lease it to the China Ocean Shipping Co. of the People's Republic of China.

The Chinese deal apparently went forward without a national security review by wither the CIA or National Security Council. The White House apparently avoided normal and routine government channels in pushing the deal through in 1995. '... there seemed to be no reason to check with the National Security Council on the decision ...' White House spokesman Lanny Davis said.

However, the China Ocean Shipping Co. of the People's Republic of China has been actively involved in several recent controversies in addition to a Russian AK-47 gun-smuggling episode on the streets of Oakland, California. In another shocking incident in December, one of the company's ships plowed into a crowded boardwalk in New Orleans, injuring 116 people.

Then, in 1992, the shipping company was fined $400,000 in a violation of U.S. shipping law in connection with is practices involving bribery of government officials in order to avoid paying U.S. tariffs on its imports at United States ports of entry.

There is still more. Six of the company's ships were detained by the Navy and Coast Guard for violating international safety regulations just in the last year. The Coast Guard said, that is has placed the China Ocean Shipping Co. of the People's Republic of China on a target list of shippers to monitor and search.

Last summer China admitted that the China Ocean Shipping Co. was shipping 640 tons of raw waste from the United States to China when it suddenly decided to dump it into the open sea.

In 1993 U.S. Navy shadowed a China Ocean Shipping Co. ship passing in the Persian Gulf after U.S. intelligence warned it was suspected of carrying chemical weapons materials.

CIA director Robert Gates has said ' ... any time you turn over an American port facility to a foreign-owned company, especially one with significant [Communist Chinese] government connection, then at least it ought to be vetted through national security agencies.'

A Navy Department career official said that no intelligence review was sought because the China Ocean Shipping Company's was not considered a security threat, by the Clinton White House.

The Chinese will lease the Long Beach Naval Station base for a 10 year term at a fee of $14.5 million per year. The Chinese will have the option to expand the perimeter of the operation onto another 150 acres of old Navy shipyards that will be developed at the City of Long Beach taxpayer's expense.

Officials at the Chinese shipping interest's headquarters in New Jersey and in Beijing refused to comment or respond to questions about president Clinton's involvement.

Onedomino, do you know if COSCO is still leasing the Long Beach Naval Station or has that lease been revoked? (see article below) I know the Chinese tried to bring in 100,000 AK-47 rifles to arm the facility but were not permitted to. But who knows, we were so lax toward the Chinese military at that time that they could have smuggled them in anyway.

Click to expand...

Your article was dated 1997. I do not know the answer to your question, but the following seems to indicate that the lease was not allowed. Here is an article from 1998 indicating that the COSCO lease was not permitted:

HUNTER SPONSORED LAW STILL BANS COMMUNIST CHINESE FROM TAKING OVER LONG BEACH NAVAL STATION

Although a state appeals court ruled today that Port of Long Beach officials did not violate state regulations by approving a lease with a Communist Chinese shipping firm, legislation authored by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), and signed into law, is in effect and prohibits the officials from turning the property over to the shipping firm.

As signed by the President last year, the national defense bill contains a provision which prevents any property at the former Long Beach Naval Station from being leased to the China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO). However, the President can waive the provision if he certifies that the firm is not a national security threat.

COSCO, an arm of the Communist Chinese government and partially controlled by the Chinese military, has been involved in illegal arms shipments to the U.S., as well as the transportation of military and strategic cargoes---including fuel components for ballistic missiles---from China and North Korea to countries such as Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and Syria.

"I expect the law to be upheld," said Rep. Hunter this afternoon. "COSCO's record implicates them as a national security threat. They are a branch of the Chinese military which has attempted to ship illegal arms to the U.S. and elsewhere.

"Although the Clinton Administration has looked the other way, new evidence of U.S. technology transfers to China and the targeting of U.S. cities by Chinese missiles compels the Administration to finally get serious about the issue of national security.

"COSCO, as a branch of the Chinese military, cannot be entrusted to control their own terminal at Long Beach or elsewhere," said Rep. Hunter.

Thanks. I certainly hope that was the case. I read a couple of books a few years ago about what the legacy of the Clinton Administration would be to this country. One was written by Rich Lowry (Legacy), and the other was a NewsMax publication (Bitter Legacy). One of these books covered this incident and said that the lease deal was actually made. I could not believe that any government of ours would be so stupid as to lease one of our naval stations to a foreign country--and a communist foreign country at that!--and why the people in California did not raise holy hell about the deal.

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